Some of this advice will be rather obvious (I hope). I have mainly started this page to record some useful databases of books listed by subject, or grade level.
However, no page on text selection would be complete without putting in at least some of the basics:
will the students enjoy the text?
what are the planned learning outcomes and does the text support them?
The Lexile database at lexile.com may help you find books at a similar level if it is in their database.
This site: http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com seems like a great idea. I don't know how extensive their database is but it looks well worth supporting.
There are a number of great books to help you find more books, e.g. Book Crush, The Ultimate Book Guide, etc.
A Google search like "books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid" often returns some good results, e.g. blog entries discussing that very topic.
However, no page on text selection would be complete without putting in at least some of the basics:
There is a Text Selection page over in the Scaffolding Literacy wiki
Children's Book Awards are always a great place to look for quality books, here are some links:
- The Children's Book Council of Australia
- To save some time, DET WA has a page listing lots of book awards sites!
Reading To Kids web site has a book list sorted by grade level from K-5.And since teachers should be able to recommend books for kids, or to their parents, here are my notes from this year's selections...
Books for year 1 students
General ways to find books